


No One Here but Us and the Sound of the Stars

by elfiepike



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 03:36:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfiepike/pseuds/elfiepike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nino had been living with Kenichi for two months before he'd offhandedly revealed that he "used to act." Kenichi didn't like to ask about Nino's past or what had made him propose their arrangement, but he always listened when Nino said something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Here but Us and the Sound of the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aeslis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeslis/gifts).



> thanks to phrenk for beta-reading, and to ltgmars for general knowledge. ♥

Kenichi got home from work late. When he worked, he always seemed to come home late. When he didn't work, he was looking for work, or promoting previous work, or thinking about what he'd most like to work on next.

"That's the trouble with actors," Nino had said. "No steady employment, no mundanity."

Nino had been living with Kenichi for two months before he'd offhandedly revealed that he "used to act." Kenichi didn't like to ask about Nino's past or what had made him propose their arrangement, but he always listened when Nino said something.

"I'm home," Kenichi called out, slipping out of his shoes. The apartment was dark except for a lamp by the sofa, casting a distinctly yellow sheen on Nino's hair where it lay on the armrest.

When Kenichi came closer, Nino seemed to be passed out completely, one hand over the closed DS resting on his sternum, the other tucked up under his side in an impossible angle.

His mouth was open a little bit, and the skin beneath his eyelashes was dark from sleep deprivation. Kenichi had been busy, but he'd noticed Nino playing something without pause, only distractedly shouting at him when he left the house.

He felt silly, almost, with how much he liked to see Nino sleeping, and how much he liked that Nino would sleep there, on the couch, his knees together and one foot over the other like a little kid.

Nino blinked awake, faster than Kenichi would have managed, but still languid, his eyes more alert than his slow yawning mouth or the curve of his shoulders as he stretched out a bit.

"I'm home," Kenichi said again.

"I can tell from the staring," Nino teases. He slid his hand out and felt the fabric at the knee of Kenichi's pants. "Yup, there you are."

"You--you're a really bad pet," Kenichi said, stumbling on his words, "not even noticing when I come home." His attempts at jokes always came out awkward and this was no exception, but Nino still smirked up at him with his cat-like smile.

"I notice when you're here," Nino replied, letting go of his DS and pushing his hand through his unruly bangs. "So, Master," he said, eyes half-lidded in a way that might've been sleepiness if Kenichi didn't know better by now, "dinner, a bath, or me?"

"I had dinner from catering," Kenichi said, too serious always and unable to look away from Nino's quick expressiveness. "Have you eaten?"

"I'll forage later," Nino waved a hand dismissively. "So, out of other two?"

 

In the bathroom, Kenichi stripped Nino out of his clothes, one layer at a time to the sound of water filling up the tub. Even when Nino didn't leave the house for days he usually still wore a tank top under his T-shirt, brightly-colored briefs under his pajama pants. It made Kenichi feel like he was revealing more than just Nino's skin to do it, and his heart always picked up a little when he could see Nino's slim shoulders, his delicate collarbones, but had yet to unveil his dark nipples or the line where his ass met his thighs.

The first time they bathed together was the first time Nino had ever bathed in Kenichi's apartment. He'd suggested it in a way that Kenichi knew now to be part-joke, part-dare, but then he'd taken it seriously.

He was more serious about it now, if anything. "Masters take care of their pets," he reminded Nino, when Nino started lifting the hem of his shirt. Usually Nino got his way, but this was one of the few things Kenichi decided for himself, for the both of them: he would make sure that Nino's clothes were put in the hamper, that his back was washed, that his hair was shampooed.

That every bit of him was clean.

 

"Masters take care of their pets," he said again later, pushing Nino back against the bed.

Nino's complaints about how dirty that was broke down under Kenichi's thorough caretaking. They'd resume later, when Kenichi would get out of bed and make Nino a plate of food, but for now, Kenichi listened to the noises Nino made that weren't words, attentive to what Nino said with his body.

Maybe someday Nino would tell him why he chose Kenichi for this, or maybe he never would; Kenichi was far too awkward and the subject was far too important for him to ask outright. Instead, he took care of Nino in his own way and let himself be happy.


End file.
